A 25-year-old Stoughton man is facing multiple criminal charges, including two counts of indecent assault, after a series of incidents in downtown Winthrop on Wednesday, Sept. 30.
Just after 4 p.m. on Sept. 30, a woman and her child came into the police department and reported that a man had attempted to pull down her pants, while making sexually explicit comments outside the Wadsworth Building on Winthrop Street, according to Winthrop police.
The suspect was described as a black man wearing a red jacket and jeans. Officers were quickly able to locate a man fitting that description but he ran from them. However, after a short foot pursuit, police located the man along Governor’s Drive. Officers stated that they deployed a taser after they said the suspect resisted arrest. Three officers suffered minor injuries while attempting to arrest the man, with one police officer being transported to the hospital. The suspect, later identified as Kervens Boutin, 25, of Stoughton, was also taken to the hospital.
Following the arrest, several other victims had come forward to report additional incidents of a similar nature. Another woman reported that a man fitting the same description had run past her, slapping her buttocks while she waited for the bus. In a third report, two other women on Jefferson Street came home and encountered the same male sitting on a couch inside their apartment with his pants unbuckled.
The male tried to call one of the victims over to him, saying he wanted to talk to her. The incident, which occurred prior to the Winthrop Street assault, prompted the victims to leave, and seek assistance from building maintenance who removed the individual from the premises.
The Jefferson Street incident appears to have occurred shortly before the two incidents on Winthrop Street, according to police.
Surveillance video recovered in this case was a crucial component. Detectives were able to quickly corroborate the victims’ accounts along with witnesses and establish the suspect’s actions and movements, according to police.
Boutin was charged with Indecent Assault and Battery on Person 14 or Over, Resisting Arrest, and Breaking and Entering into a Building in the Daytime for a Felony.
Boutin was arraigned on the charges in East Boston District Court. According to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Boutin was ordered to undergo a 20 day evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital and is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 20.